Fabio Gurgel and Mauricio Rua having fun during Jiu-Jitsu training, in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Jair Lacerda/GRACIEMAG

Every week, Alliance academy in São Paulo has its Casual Friday, and not a soul in the gym wears a coat. Last Friday was a gala occasion, however, as a special guest put in an appearance—or reappearance. And GRACIEMAG.com was there to witness it. To everyone’s delight, Mauricio Shogun didn’t want to even hear about ceremony and dove right in, swapping sweeps and footlocks with the heavyweights at Fabio Gurgel’s academy, such as Antonio “Batista” Peinado and Tarsis Humphreys.

“Shogun’s a Jiu-Jitsu black belt. He knows his way around on the ground. Here at the gym we don’t have MMA-focused training but we have been making the most of this partnership, which began with Sérgio [Moraes] and André Dida at the ‘TUF’ house,” explains Gurgel. He too was caught hitting the No-Gi training hard, in preparation for his ADCC 2013 supermatch with Zé Mario Sperry.

“I really like working on Jiu-Jitsu, and I learned so much here at Alliance in such a short time. I can only thank Fabio and the rest,” Shogun said in praise.

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Jon Jones and the challenger Rashad Evans, former teammate and former champ / Photo: UFC/from Twitter.

That Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will be face to face this coming Saturday, April 21, at UFC 145 in Atlanta, everyone knows. That Jones and Evans were once training partners, not too many people ignore.

The fact is, yesterday the two MMA aces stoked the flames surrounding their title fight by lashing out on TV and the internet. Examples? I have no sympathy at all for Rashad. I seem him as being fake, arrogant and selfish,” said the light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones.

Rashad reciprocated with the same intensity. “You can’t be the champion if you haven’t fought me. You have the belt but you’re not the champion,” he said in defiance. “The way it looks is, they elected the guy they like backing. There isn’t much I can say about that, just that I’ll do what I have to. I’m not worried about it [the fact that Jon Jones will be sponsored by the very UFC brand for this fight]. They’re on Jones’s side, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t bother me,” said Rashad.

On the two having trained together years back, Rashad let further sparks fly, saying that Jon Jones would get nervous when things didn’t go the way he planned…

Could the back story between the two headliners influence the way the fight goes?

What do you think, gentle reader? What would your thoughts be like if you had to go up against an old acquaintance? Would you enter the cage brimming with confidence? Would you try mentalizing a past sparring session? Or would you clear it all from your find, seeing as the opponent is completely different now? Let us know in the comments field below.

UFC 145
Atlanta, United States
April 21, 2012

Jon Jones vs Rashad Evans
Rory MacDonald vs Che Mills
Ben Rothwell vs Brendan Schaub
Mark Hominick vs Eddie Yagin
Mark Bocek vs John Alessio
Miguel Torres vs Michael McDonald
Travis Browne vs Chad Griggs
Matt Brown vs Stephen Thompson
John Makdessi vs Anthony Njokuani
Mac Danzig vs Efrain Escudero
Marcus Brimage vs Maximo Blanco
Keith Wisniewski vs Chris Clements